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Monday, 25 February 2008

Leftovers are wonderful aren't they? Where will they end up . . . nobody knows. I love my leftovers - most times though I don't have any particular plans for them - they'll just be on stand by until I need them.

The pineapple foldy thing is part of the demonstration that we had a couple of Saturdays ago. It turned out quite nice and was a very interesting technique - there is no batting used in the quilt as there is the extra weight of all the fabric. A strip is sewn onto a foundation that is all marked out with lines and then the strip is folded back onto one of those lines, pinned and then you carry on all around the block sewing a strip and folding it back, etc. Very nice!

But of course when it is a demo piece you never know what kind of fabrics to try or how big the piece will end up. This is only the one block of the four blocks we prepared for, so I still need to make another three blocks to finish a possible cushion cover.

This is the other block that was demonstrated to us, which also turned out quite nice. A little more time consuming getting the fabric laid out and cut on the angle but it was worth it when you see the perfectly matched points! I'm glad I used the same Christmas fabrics in both samples so that I can now finish them both as cushion covers and use them this December. Or . . . maybe as a nice Christmas gift?!?!!?! Now didn't that work out great - I have some of my Christmas gift giving already figured out . . .

Thursday, 21 February 2008

What a surprise I had when I went blog surfing at noon hour yesterday to find that back on February 8th I had been smacked by the wonderful little blogger from Australia Life's Just a Ferball. I love checking out her site to see what is going on "downunder" and what projects she has on the go - thank you, Fer.

In the words from "the original smoocheree":

So, the point (and I do have one) to this post is motivated by my desire to hand some of that love and kindness back around to those who have been so very, very, very good to me in this bloggy world. My hope is that those who receive this award will pass it on to those who have been very, very, very good to them as well. It's a big kiss, of the chaste platonic kind, from me to you with the underlying 'thanks' message implied. I really do appreciate your support and your friendship and yes, your comments. ... Mwah!

So I am going to share the blogging love with these wonderful people -

Myra and Cori at blue meadow designs - you get mega stars for being my sounding board for the last few years and for all of the great feedback you give me - Thank You!

Anne Sutton at Bunny Tales - who so kindly answered my many questions! I love her blog . . . all those little bunnies all over, the pink everything and especially that little adorable Chelsea (and I don't even like dogs!). Anne's fabric lines are absolutely wonderful - if you haven't checked them out yet visit Henry Glass Fabrics.

Sandi Henderson at Portabellopixie - who also answered many, many questions. Sandi's fabric is fantastic also - check out Ginger Blossom in stores near you - it's just starting to hit the market right now. Sandi's site is full of wonderful photos and gorgeous kid's clothing - where were some of these fabrics when my kids were little?

Vivian Love is a wonderful machine quilter from California who is always leaving wonderful little comments on my blog. Check out her site and see some of the wonderful designs she creates - I wish I could send some of my unfinished quilt tops to California . . .

and I am also extending this "smack" to everyone who visits my blog. Thank you!

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Here we are - half way through this week and I'm just getting around to posting!

I've been on a bit of a sewing streak that has been good for the soul . . . finishing a few quilt tops that have needed done for quite some time. I am still not going to show you everything though, some of the ones I have finished will not be shown for quite some time to come.

This is the quilt that I was working at around Christmas time that was using the leftovers from my mother-in-law's Christmas present. I ran out of some colors and ended up having to purchase the lighter print for the border - but then it looked so plain that I needed to use up even more scraps and make stars in a bunch of different sizes, plus little circles scattered about. I like it . . . it is bright, fun and happy - just what everyone needs through the winter months. At least I'm seeing this as a "winter" quilt, not just a Christmas quilt, and plan to have it out all through the cold months next year.

I still need to take some photos of the demos that we worked on through last Saturday's workshop - quite fun and interesting. Yvette was a wonderful teacher and I have once again developed a greater appreciation for pastel quilts. The quilts that she brought to show us were so pastel and . . . almost calming. Can a quilt create calm? Somehow there were a couple that were just that. I need to get together some pastels and sew up a bed quilt - maybe it would help me sleep at night.

I know my camera wasn't set right the other (early) morning when I took this little picture but I thought I'd share anyway. These are all little items from my mother's sewing cabinet that I have created a little memory shelf of. I always think of her when this catches my eye - some memories are good, aren't they?

Who doesn't like roses? I know it's long after Valentine's Day, but I just had to share these beauties. Everyone knows that you are supposed to get red roses for Valentine's Day but my husband knows that I have a preference to yellow roses, so he threw one lonesome one into the bunch - what a wonderful little addition.

Monday, 11 February 2008

Due to really bad weather this past weekend, I was able to stay home both Saturday and Sunday - what an unexpected bonus!

So the house received it's little bit of cleaning on Saturday morning and then I headed to the sewing room. The above photo shows two projects that are currently being worked on. The light green strips and appliqued stars and dots are for borders on one of my quilts that I was working on back in December. I'll show you the whole thing once I sew the borders on.

The little view in the upper right hand corner is a new pattern that I'm still working on . . . seems like forever! I did get some more applique done on this project as well.

What a wonderful weekend . . . I'd like more like that.

This little quilt (above) is also one of those new patterns that is sitting around staring at me - I put some pins in it this weekend - I guess that's closer than I was last week to finishing it. It is part one of a previous glimpse I gave a couple of weeks ago of the part two piece of this quilt pattern. Pretty fabrics, eh?

This is my first commercial quilt pattern called "Sipiweske", of course!

My daughter was home last week and she is curled up under there somewhere - hiding from the camera . . . she comes by that honestly.

Thursday, 7 February 2008

You know what it's like - everything seems to take too much effort and it's easier to just not do it. I shouldn't say everything . . . there have been moments in the last few days when there has been that little glimmer of achievement . . . but mostly just still blah.

I have taken some pictures, but not of quilts and when I started this blog it was supposed to have quilt pictures. I haven't had the opportunity to sew in the last month it seems - maybe that's why I'm so blah - I'm in withdrawal or something. No sewing this weekend either, unless I can squeeze some in on Sunday.

I'm off to Carberry to do a little teaching - sorta quilting, but not really. I've been asked to impart my very limited knowledge of the EQ5 program - thank goodness they didn't want to know anything about EQ6 as I'm still working on learning some of it's newness. So that is what I've been trying to do this week is brush up on some of my EQ5 skills so I don't look like a complete nerd on Saturday.

I've also been working on my final homework assignment for my Photography Class. Now some of that was fun and interesting and actually got my husband, daughter and her boyfriend involved as well. One of the assignments was "graffiti" and one was "water". As soon as I mentioned graffiti to my husband he instantly knew where to go (how? I didn't ask!).

So last Saturday, down on the wrong side of the tracks, right next to the rail yard in Brandon, many a graffiti pictures were taken. On the side of buildings, chasing trains and on garbage containers - it was really quite fun to have everyone focussing on finding just graffiti - something we usually try to ignore. Amazing stuff on the side of railcars though! What language is that anyway? I hope it isn't a bad word!

The "water" part of the assignment was something that we just kinda stumbled on. We took the car to a car wash and low and behold the underside of water drops on the sun roof are really quite neat. Plus then we went grocery shopping (got a few stares here!) and quite unexpectedly the sprinklers came on the vegetables as we were bagging some lettuce. The very fine spray that misted onto the various vegetables was awesome - have a look next time you're grocery shopping.

So that's about it for my week . . . sorry I've been a little amiss this week with posting . . . I'll try and get back to some quilting soon.

Friday, 1 February 2008

Where has January gone? Wow, that seemed to go by in a flash . . . so many things going on, I guess I didn't really concentrate on the calendar days. But, that's a good thing here in Manitoba - who wants to concentrate on all those cold and blustery days?

After planning on attending two quilt workshops in January, turns out I had to cancel out of both because of my surgery. Therefore I have had nothing quilty to blog about for the whole month of January. I had hoped to get to the sewing machine this weekend, but turns out my daughter is coming out from Winnipeg tonight to spend the weekend with us. Her 24th birthday is tomorrow, so we will have to do some girly things like shopping, drinking coffee and whatever else we can dream up.

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